(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a failure predictive system, and a failure predictive apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
As an image forming apparatus having a function of forming an image on a recording material such as sheet, a copying machine, a printer apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, a multifunctional machine combined with the functions thereof, and the like are known.
The image forming apparatus produced commercially may often be used in a marginal condition such as a continuous operation for mass printing or a usage of wide variety of sheets, and a full-time operator performs maintenance with respect to an apparatus state and maintains the operation. In particular, in an electrophotography-type image forming apparatus, due to a complicated image forming mechanism, it is difficult to maintain a stable operation only by the maintenance of the full-time operator, and thus the stable operation is maintained by a scheduled visit of a maintenance service engineer of a manufacturer. However, the scheduled visit of the maintenance service engineer is not sufficient, and thus an unscheduled visit for handling a trouble that has occurred may occur.
Recently, in order to handle such a situation as described above, a so-called remote maintenance service in which the state of the image forming apparatus is remotely monitored, and a preventative maintenance visit is performed when a predictor of the trouble is observed is spread, and it is helpful to reduce down time (a time period for a state in which an original function of the apparatus is hindered from being used due to a failure) of the image forming apparatus.
Up to now, various technologies with respect to a failure prediction targeted at various apparatuses or facilities have been proposed.